October 19, 2008

The House in My Dreams... Again

In June, I wrote a post about the house where I grew up. I knew I had saved a little album of photographs from the house, but just couldn't find it. Today, as I was searching for the converters and UK power cords, I came across it and thought you might like to see some more details of the house. The last time I wrote about this house, I was accused of showing off, but I don't think that's the case. By accident of birth, I was lucky enough to be raised a certain way. There was nothing I could or can do to change that. I was recently accused of having a "hoity-toity" name, and there's really nothing I can do about that either. Anyway... I hope you enjoy these pictures. Let me know what you think (if it's not too mean!).

This is the detail from one of the columns entering the living room. At Christmas, we'd wrap them in balsam garlanding. Just behind, you can see the fanlight over the front door.This is the wall-paper from the dining room. Only the top third of the room was papered and it's hand-printed Chinese paper.The curtains in the dining room were the same pattern, probably printed on a heavy silk/linen.There were three full baths in the house, and this is the shower in one of the two kids bathrooms. When we moved in, all the nozzles on the sides worked, but then they started leaking. We would have had to take the whole shower stall apart to repair them, so we just never turned them on.This is the bathtub that was in my parents' bathroom. The tub was huge and took ages to fill, but we'd make it as hot as we could stand and just stay in there for hours. The tub was porcelain, not enamel over cast iron. One of my favourite things about the house was the front porch, with two of these amazing lanterns. They were iron and frosted glass and looked wonderful when they were lit. There were 24 steps leading up to the house and the lamps were like shining beacons.As I said in the original post about the house, the front hall was about 10+ feet wide and we used to roll back the rugs and teach our friends the Shag. At Christmas, we'd hang a little tiny elf mobile from the center of the chandelier.The front porch was a major living space during the warmer months. It was surrounded by a stone wall and this is the detail from the wall, which you can also see in the snowy picture above. In the living room, there was a huge granite fireplace surround, topped by mahogany planks. There were two faces holding up the mantel and this is one of them. We never found out the history of the two faces... although the original owner of the house disappeared just before the house was finished... and the house was haunted. Who knows?

I think it's amazing that you lived in this house and this post and the other one from June are just lovely. The best thing I think is that your father took all these photos and that you can share them and not have to rely on just memories. Wonderful photography and wonderful homes.

you have a hoity toity name? is it the fairfax or the fielding? seriously - I'm Jewish - I don't know from hoity toity - haha!! i'm cracking myself up!! really - which is it, or is it both? I bet its the Fairfax! that does sound "rich" to me. Meg, help me out here.

ok - that bathtub - that's my favorite picture! you know I love this house soo much and am so jealous you lived here. I lived in a spaceship contemporary. ugh. that face from to the fireplace - it's sad! it looks religious to me, like a monk maybe? with that hat or is that hair? I just love these pictures soooo much and want to see even more!!!!! love the shower too. and those light fixtures - incredible. the look like arts and craft movement. just beautiful!!!!

Who are these people criticizing your name? That sounds like insecurity or at least people not worth caring about what they think. The house is beautiful -I love these detail shots. It's details like these that make a house a home. Often these faces in homes were of the stone masons who did the carving.....who knows though!

Love the photos! What an incredible house...the wallpaper reminds me of this vintage Thibaut one I keep lusting after on E-Bay...of course yours is way cooler and more eleganthttp://cgi.ebay.com/Thibaut-hand-print-Chinese-Fantasy-wallpaper-mural_W0QQitemZ260302487709QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260302487709&_trkparms=72%3A1240%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

What a wonderful place to grow up. Houses really shape our sense of beauty and space and we're lucky if our families and relatives or friends live in a place that can teach us about beauty. All the houses I've lived in are imprinted on my heart — as they should be.

Don't let the haters get you down. What a joy it is to find someone who wants to share beauty... whether it's found in public or in a childhood home. Beauty is still beauty, regardless of where it's found or what your name is. As a blogger, you should be commended for bringing it into our lives!

What a beautiful home - I especially love the snow shot. Growing up in Australia, snow was an unknown concept for me, so the romantic notion of a childhood home covered in snow certainly resonates for me. xv

Your childhood home is beautiful and looks like a warm and wonderful place to have grown up. Thank you for sharing it with us. That wainscotting in the dining room and the bathroom tile with greek are inspiring to us as we renovate our tiny tudor. But above all I love the large leaded glass window with window seat on the landing it is indeed, dreamy. Smiles, LC

Meg - what a beautiful house! And how great that someone in your family thought to take all these detail photos. It makes me wish I had photos of the house I grew up in. But, I have only the memories - of my mom's hot pink kitchen cabinets and chartreuse-painted dining room! (It was the 50s & she was a design fanatic too.)

Hayseed... i wanted to let you know that the third floor was a huge bedroom, which was the window on the right, and then a playroom/nursery, which was the two windows on the left. There was also a smaller bedroom and a bathroom with a great old cast iron tub, which we painted kelly green and yellow at one point.

Meg! I hope you never feel tempted to apologize, or even respond to that very RUDE commenter. It is fabulous that you were fortunate enough to be raised in such a beautiful home. If not you then who?!? It is so wonderful that you have such a rich tradition and heritage, I never tire of hearing aobut it. AND I am VERY jealous that you are shopping with HOBAC! I hope you take lots of pictures!

I love that it was you who grew up there...because if it was someone else it's very likely that we would never get a peek inside! It's so rare to see that kind of craftsmanship and attention to detail in the world I live in...thanks for sharing...more please ;)

How I wish that I had pictures of the homes I grew up in (I moved around every few years as a child). There is one home in particular, a former embassy in Washington DC. Sometimes, when I visit DC, I drive by it and wonder what it looks like inside now.

I wonder why we live in a cultural climate where people are accusatory and angry at a person for growing up and/or living comfortably. Where it is the 'patriotic duty' of financially successful Americans to pay for the overwhelming majority of the tax burden on this country. Anyway, I digress.

Absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing! I grew up (until the age of 12) in the same home that my dad grew up in and the same neighborhood my grandfather grew up in. Not as nice a neighborhood, but I still feel fortunate!!! Seriously, there's no end to ridiculous people out there in the world who will jump on anyone for anything! Hope it rolled like water off a duck's back! :)

Hoity toity schmoity- please, you're not that at all! You know, I just don't think they make houses like that anymore. You were quite lucky to grow up in such a beautiful home, but I know that you know that! I love the tile floor with the Greek Key design in your parents' bathroom.(PS- Does anyone Shag anymore? And I mean the dance!)

About Me

Pigtown Design is the musings of Meg Fairfax Fielding, a Baltimore-based writer, photographer and fund-raiser, who explores design, architecture, culture, and current events in Baltimore and around the world.